


Dulcet

by junemarquess



Category: GOT7, Infinite (Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: Fantasy, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-15 09:56:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13610937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junemarquess/pseuds/junemarquess
Summary: A bus crash sends Woohyun on an adventure through time and space with a stranger.





	1. Zero

Dodging around some of the slower moving cars, Woohyun kept one eye on the road and another on his dashboard to make sure he wasn’t speeding too much, all while singing along to his favorite. After all, getting pulled over would just make him later than he already was.

It was 6:30AM, typically far before the morning rush, but traffic in his city was known for being spotty and he could find a horrible backup at any given moment.

He was going to a convention in New York, one that his teacher had recommended him to. It didn’t excite him terribly much – he was just there because he was nearing graduation and internships and careers were very important items to the college upperclassman. He certainly didn’t look forward to a weekend of schmoozing, but perhaps he could duck away and visit the Museum of Modern Art at some point during the trip.

Thankfully, no traffic appeared, and Woohyun arrived at his school at 6:50, finding a wonderful surplus of parking spots.

Woohyun hopped out of his car, grabbed his suitcase, and sprinted over towards the other side of campus. The bus was supposed to leave at 7:00AM sharp, and it would take at least ten minutes to get to the bus stop. He pulled out the retractable handle as he ran so that he could roll the suitcase behind him, even though it flipped around every time he hit a curb or an especially meddlesome crack in the sidewalk.

He arrived in a huff at the bus stop, glad to see that it was still there. He was one of the last to board, finding a seat smack dab in the middle of the bus next to a Caucasian man engrossed in his Nintendo DS. Leaning back as he let his breath slow down, Woohyun sighed in relief. Since he was running on just a few hours of sleep, he fell into dreamland quickly and easily.

He woke up to a crashing sound, a tumbling, sharp pain in his right shoulder, and a dull throbbing in his head. Groaning, he lifted himself off of what looked like the ceiling of the bus and crawled over to the emergency exit, following the stream of people. Still dazed, he didn’t quite notice some of the other, crumpled bodies around him until someone shouted for them to help the unconscious out of the bus.  
  
And so he did, helping someone carefully carry someone out of the emergency exit. Thankfully, it felt as if the person’s blood was still flowing, despite their unresponsive state. He could only contribute one arm, as moving the other was impossible without unreasonable amounts of pain.  
  
When he arrived outside, he collapsed on the floor, black spots blocking out his vision as his head swirled. He felt someone touching his arm gingerly, and the word “dislocated” blurred in with the rest of the commotion around him.  
  
The black blobs slowly covered his entire vision, until he closed his eyes in defeat. All of the words around him piled on top of each other and flowed away in a thundering river, leading far, far away from him. Finally, the world around him was silent. When he opened his eyes again, everything was black. Except, for some reason, he could see himself, as if his skin and clothes were glowing just enough to give his body light, but none of his surroundings, save for a red string that stretched into the darkness before him.  
  
His gaze followed the string down to his hand, where it was attached to his pinky finger.  
  
Well, there was nothing else to do but walk. And so he did, not one speck of light permeating the darkness around him. With every step he took, the searing pain in his shoulder became just a bit more bearable, but still not a bit less present. Something – he had no idea what it was – told him that he was nearing the end of the string.  
  
Suddenly, his shoulder lurched backwards. Woohyun screamed in pain, dropping to his knees and clutching his shoulder. His eyes were squeezed tight as the pain receded, but opened them when he found that it wasn’t nearly as bad as before.  
  
Once he’d opened his eyes, he found that he wasn’t in the forest area next to the road where the bus had crashed anymore. He was in a more heavily wooded area, and could hear a small stream trickling nearby. He was sitting in a bed of fallen leaves that painted the floor bright orange, and the trees above him were sparsely leaved.  
  
A sudden, cold feeling on his shoulder stole his attention, and he found that part of his shirt – thankfully, it wasn’t one that he particularly treasured – had been ripped off. Squatting next to him was a man in a tank top and shorts, a ridiculous outfit for late autumn, and intricate tattoos or swirling patterns decorating every inch of his arm. His hair was dark brown and his eyes pitch black. No, not the dark brown that most Asians had. They were perfectly, absolutely black, sucking in every hint of light that dared to come close. It was scientifically impossible, but there they were.  
  
He was also applying some sort of poultice to Woohyun’s arm.  
  
Woohyun, a firm believer in modern medicine, looked at the concoction skeptically. “What are you doing?” He finally asked.  
  
The man snorted, “Really. I do you a favor and un-dislocate your shoulder for you, and that’s how you’re going to speak to me? Calm down, I’m just trying to fix your damn limbs. Unless you don’t want them anymore.”  
  
Woohyun had half a mind to lecture him on how it was unlikely that applying something to his skin could possibly affect the joint underneath, but the man’s mesmerizingly void stare told him that it probably would not be a particularly good idea. Instead, he obediently rested his head in his other hand, letting the man do his work. “Thanks.”  
  
“You’re welcome. Name’s Sunggyu.”  
  
“Woohyun.”  
  
The man nodded, returning to his work. Indeed, Woohyun could feel his shoulder numbing up – that was what he assumed was going on, as he was too stubborn to admit that whatever outdated remedy this man had made could have actually cured his shoulder.  
  
“Um, if I might ask, where am I?”  
  
“In a forest. People don’t usually name forests, so there’s not much I can tell you there. You kind of just upped and walked away from that accident and in here. Freaked everyone out.”  
  
Woohyun blinked, “Did you follow me out here?”  
  
“No. I’m not one of you.” Sunggyu said simply.  
  
“Can you take me back?”  
  
“No, you’re too far gone for that now.” Sunggyu took Woohyun’s other hand and held it in front of him, showing him a burn mark on his pinky, right where the red string had been tied earlier. He then lifted his own left hand. It was more rugged than Woohyun’s smooth, city-boy hands, but it sported the same burn mark around it.  
  
“Red string of fate,” Woohyun whispered to himself.  
  
“Yep. Now get up, you’re fine now. I have stuff to do and people to see, and you have to come with me.”  
  
Woohyun opened his mouth and closed it, trying to figure out how he could possibly get out of the situation. Then again, what else would he do? Wait for another bus to pick the passengers up and take him to the conference?  
  
Without another word, he stood up, finding the other man to be just a bit taller than him. “Alright, where to?” he asked firmly, newfound determination coming with his newly healed shoulder.  
  
Sunggyu smirked slightly. “I like your spirit.”  
  
“You didn’t answer the question. Do you have a car nearby or something?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“So…you walked? Biked?”  
  
Sunggyu wrinkled his nose. “Ew. No, I don’t walk places. Here,” he held out his hand, and one of the tattoos on his arm floated off of his arm and expanded into a large circle on the floor. Within its perimeter, a glowing appeared on the ground, iridescent light covering what used to be a bed of fiery leaves. “Come on now, step right up.”  
  
“Oh, yes, I’ll definitely walk into this strange circle you just conjured. You really don’t enjoy explaining yourself, do you?”  
  
Sunggyu made a face, “Well, I have to do it every time I get caught up in mortal shit, so yeah, you can probably imagine. But, I’ll give you the spiel anyways. I’m the gatekeeper, I can make portals between different locations, universes, and times.”  
  
“Time?” Woohyun furrowed in eyebrows, “How? Won’t you get stuck in a paradox?” As a science enthusiast, Woohyun had his experience with time-travel stories and logistics.  
  
“Well, being the gatekeeper means I’m basically transcendent. I live outside of time. Since you aren’t, though, you won’t be doing any sort of time travel. Sorry to burst your bubble, if you had one,” Sunggyu explained, “Anyways, in this timeline, there’s been an issue with a malfunctioning gate between universes – that is, creatures and people from another universe have been let into it.”  
  
Woohyun decided to put all science aside for the moment and assume this guy knew what he was talking about. “So, we just need to go around and send them back?”  
  
“Well, not necessarily. First, we need to figure out the source of the problem. Once we eliminate that, the best case is that everyone gets sent back automatically. Worst case, you’ll have to help me with roundup, but I’d probably be able to handle that myself. We will have to make some stops first, though. So, whenever you’re ready,” Sunggyu gestured at the portal on the ground.  
  
Woohyun nodded, processing the information and staring down at the luminous pool in front of him. Well, there was nothing to lose anymore – if it was all a hoax, all that would happen would be that his newly-met “friend” could tease him for being gullible.  
  
Taking a deep breath, he put his right foot into the circle, and it disappeared in the light without a hint of resistance. Before he could stop himself, he jumped through.


	2. Poached

There was nothing in between – no magical, swirly interlude typically featured in cheesy time-travel movies. He simply found himself elsewhere, in a bathroom stall. The pool above him disappeared and reappeared in the next stall over, and he saw Sunggyu’s body falling through. The two of them exited the stalls, and Woohyun was glad to see that nobody was around, as casually appearing anywhere would be quite the evening news.

Then again, he figured he should assume that Sunggyu had more than enough experience portalling from place to place to make discreet landings. 

Sunggyu nodded at Woohyun as they exited the bathroom, coming out into a small patisserie. Not one to enter restaurants and use their facilities without purchase, Woohyun decided to indulge in a chocolate eclair, which was strangely shaped like weiner dog. “Are all of the pastries here animal-shaped?” Sunggyu didn’t answer, thinking that the question was so remarkably obvious. 

Regardless, Woohyun felt generous enough to buy Sunggyu a miniature strawberry shortcake, which was shaped like a crab. They sat down at a corner table of the cafe, a little ways away from the only other guests.

“You really didn’t have to,” Sunggyu said, though he couldn’t hide the excitement in his eyes as he regarded the creamy treat. 

Woohyun shrugged, taking a bite off the tail of his dog-shaped eclair. It was perfect — wonderfully fluffy and not too sweet, the Bavarian creme complementing the chocolate frosting. “It’s no big deal. Speaking of spending money, though - where are we going to sleep for the next few days? Do we need to like, buy a hotel room or something?” While Woohyun was willing to blow some cash on the odd treat, hotels came pretty expensive.

Sunggyu looked around, and then whispered, “I usually just portal to an empty hotel room somewhere. We just have to get out of there before the housekeepers come around.” 

Woohyun nearly choked on his dessert. “I...see.” 

“Oh, and make sure you make the bed well in the morning. I’ve gotten pretty good at that,” Sunggyu muffled between quick bites of his strawberry shortcake.

“Um. Alright. I’ll do that.” 

“Anyways,” Sunggyu’s voice became even more hushed than before, “I have a contact around here from another world - don’t worry, he travels in between, so he belongs here. He should be here soon, actually.” 

‘Soon’ came even sooner than expected, as the jingling of a chime hanging from the door indicated somebody’s entrance. The girl at the counter greeted him cheerily and he ordered something or another before looking around the cafe. Sunggyu caught his eye and waved him over.

He was somewhat short - but definitely not any more so than Woohyun himself. He was widely set, and Woohyun could tell that defined muscles lay under the leather jacket, white graphic shirt, and jeans that were obscuring them. 

What caught Woohyun’s eye the most was a thin, red and black harlequin-patterned baton that the man held over his shoulder. It was topped off with two white stoppers on the ends. Upon closer inspection, Woohyun could see that the cane was segmented, a bit like those pencils where you could pull off a piece and attach it to the end for another pencil. 

“Hey man, what’s up?” Sunggyu asked, scooting over a bit so that his friend could sit down. “Woohyun, this is Hoya. Hoya, Woohyun.”

Woohyun shook the man’s hand. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you.”

Not missing a beat, Sunggyu went on, “He’s from an alternate world directly linked with this one. All of our creations - our fictional ones, that is - are real there. They have dragons, unicorns, religious deities, even the odd, jumbled mess of a child’s drawing. It’s quite a place. Unfortunately, having so many spectacular creatures in one place has attracted a lot of attention, and people have tried to travel to that world to kill the animals and sell their more profitable bits. Thus, they’ve imposed a whole bunch of laws banning hunting and the like. Of course, there are still poachers. I got lucky enough to make acquaintances with one of the most capable ones.” 

The man nodded quietly, happy to let Sunggyu explain the whole situation. The waitress arrived with Hoya’s food, lemon tart shaped like a chicken and a drink with whipped cream, right after Sunggyu finished.

“Anyways, Hoya, do you have the goods?” 

Woohyun was starting to feel like he had just come out of a movie about a drug lord.

Hoya pulled out a small plastic bag, inside which had four pieces of some sort of golden-yellow beeswax. Woohyun was relieved to see that it wasn’t any sort of white powder.

Sunggyu grimaced. “I expected better presentation, Howon.” 

Howon visibly seethed. “I  _ told _ you not to call me that. Besides, this is more discreet.” 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Sunggyu took the bag from him and paid him in some sort of currency that Woohyun had never seen before. 

Hoya meticulously counted his pay and after he was satisfied, he shuffled the currency into one of his many pockets. “By the way, there’s been some trouble in the multiverse, too. Actually, I don’t know if it’s even trouble because so far, the other poachers have been able to handle it.”

“Trouble?” Sunggyu asked.

“Some dick has been wandering between the universes. Which wouldn’t be so bad if they actually  _ closed _ the damn portals. We’ve had a few reports of creatures running in and out, mostly babies, and ending up where they’re not supposed to.” 

Sunggyu winced a little on the inside. He took great care in making sure the portals were always closed before carrying on with his business. In his earlier days as a trainee, he had accidentally left a portal open and that had led to them chasing a unicorn across six different dimensions. Hoya was furious; that unicorn horn was priceless and it was a good thing they caught it in time before it went and got itself killed by a troll. 

Since then, Hoya had forgiven him, but Sunggyu always felt like Hoya was passive-aggressively attacking him whenever similar instances occurred. “Oh. Well, if it’s all under control…”

“For now it is, as long as it doesn’t get any worse,” Hoya shrugged and sipped his caramel frappucino, a surprisingly childish drink for his character. “Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. I’ll leave you to the whole Sirena situation. Let me know how it goes.”

Hoya finished his frappucino and his lemon tart before getting up with a twirl of his baton. “It was a pleasure doing business with you, Sunggyu. And Woohyun?” 

Woohyun’s eyes widened. Hoya smirked with a knowing glance at the gatekeeper. “Take care of my mate for me, will you? He’s a bit like a tea kettle. He’s always screaming unless you keep an eye on him.” 

Sunggyu blanched. “Hey! What’s that supposed to mean!?” 

Hoya and Woohyun shared a chuckle. “I rest my case.”

With fitting grace, Hoya strode over to the door, waving his regards to the waitress. Woohyun watched him walk onto the sidewalk outside and held up an arm to the sky, as if hailing a taxi. Within moments, a huge, winged, purple-scaled beast swooped down. Hoya grabbed onto one of the assorted golden spikes on the creature’s neck and hopped on, needing no more than a split second to find his balance before the beast flew away. Everybody in the area was staring, but not in utter shock as Woohyun would expect from the appearance of a legendary beast, but rather admiration at the smooth mount.

Woohyun gaped, turning slowly to look back at Sunggyu, who had an infuriatingly smug smirk on his face. “What the hell?”

“Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention. That world I said Hoya was from? That’s where we are now. I thought you would have realized by the crab-shaped pastries.”

“Excuse me?”

“Well, crabs and weiner dogs don’t exist in this world. Didn’t you notice the store says ‘Fantasy Patisserie’ all over?”

“That’s just a name!”

Sunggyu rolled his eyes, “How would Hoya even get to your universe anyways? He’s a poacher, not a gatekeeper.”

“...” 

Woohyun stared disdainfully at Sunggyu before wolfing down the rest of the chocolate eclair huffily. Sunggyu took dainty bites of the last bits of his strawberry shortcake, which he had managed to make shockingly good progress on despite talking so much. 

“Whatever. Let’s get out of here. Sirena or something, right?” 

Sunggyu nodded, taking out a few pieces of the beeswax out of the bag as he pushed Woohyun back towards the bathroom they arrived in. “Here, you’ll need these. Put them in your ears.”

Woohyun took the pieces. “What, like this?” he asked, trying to stick them into his ears.

“No, dumbass, you have to mold them first,” Sunggyu held out his own pair and demonstrated, rolling the wax into perfect earplugs and sticking them into his ears. 

“CAN YOU HEAR ME!?”

“Oh my lord, shhhh!” Sunggyu pushed Woohyun backwards, almost into the sink, He whispered lowly, “Magical earplugs, dummie. MAGICAL. I can hear you fine, it just filters out the sirena’s songs.” 

Woohyun grumbled, “Sounds like information you should be telling me sooner,” before following suit with molding and sticking his own earplugs in. “Let’s go.”


End file.
